There are a variety of industrial systems (e.g., barcode scanning, license plate reading, and biometric identification) where an image is obtained by a camera and then subjected to assorted processes depending on the type of industrial system. The quality of images that are captured by a camera is commonly a limiting factor on overall system performance.
One of more common issues with obtaining images is motion blur, which may be severely limiting to subsequent images processing and/or analysis. As an example, with a standard 13 mil UPC barcode, the motion of a single narrow bar over the course of exposure may reduce the contrast that is needed at the spatial frequency to 0% thereby causing scanning to fail.
Motion blur is a growing concern in many industrial systems as modern cameras are increasingly moving towards lower cost rolling shutter sensors. The alternative to lower cost rolling shutter sensors is using more expensive global shutter sensors.
The more expensive global shutter sensors typically provide the camera with the opportunity to illuminate the target with a high-powered flash. Illuminating the target with a high-powered flash is possible due to the overlapping exposure of each row in the image that results from using global shutter sensors. The partially-overlapping rolling shutter timing often require more power to operate the high-powered flash than is typically available, especially in power-constrained applications (e.g., barcode scanners operating on power through a USB port). As such, there is a need for systems and methods that address motion blur for various industrial imaging applications.